The defining ensemble
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Qazi Azad
THE factor that decides the ultimate dynamics of a country is its social ensemble. The nature of this ensemble is patterned and regulated by the historical circumstances. It cannot be fully changed overnight, as it is rooted in the events of irretrievable past. But it can be modified in a gradual process.
Massive pressure to change the character of the constituents of a social ensemble, as on any mechanical one, may destroy or distort the ensemble itself. That's why gradual motivation through a steady process of counseling and changes in the legal framework has been recognized in the communication science as an effective tool for modifying and changing the basic characters of a society. The same argument justifies the freedom of press.
The early major historical forces, like ancient kings, were basically thugs. They occupied lands and subjugated peoples not because they wanted to promote public weal. They were led primarily by their greed to augment their personal wealth. But in the process of consolidating their newly acquired possessions they adopted, altered and refined their policies, which markedly served public weal. It may be the story about the evolution and refinement of the social ensembles, now being called societies.
The British House of Lords is widely viewed in the Great Britain and elsewhere in the informed circles as the conscience keeper of the society in that country. Who are the members of that august body? The largest majority of them are landlords, the British version of the former landlords in this country, who were called zamindars. The British have retained their House of Lords for the last 800 years. It has allowed the successive generations of members of the House to upgrade their characters through a process of progressive education and steady inheritance of cultivated values and rich ideas, which Morgan recognize in sociology as the way of structural improvement of the social ensemble.
Some American analysts trace the family trees of contenders for their presidency. Bill Clinton, prior to his election to his nation's top job, was found by a few of them to have traces of distant family connections with both the British and the French royal families. It seems that they still look for the blue blood while selecting individuals for major public offices of trust, like the presidency.
In contrast, the dissolved Soviet Union always valued meritocracy and hierarchical positions within its communist party. A coalmine worker, as was Podgorny, was chosen late in the last century as its president. Late chairman Mao in China relied on aristocrat Chou En Lai, as his prime minister, to rebuild his communist country on the model of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He depended on a strong pillar of the old social ensemble to create a new ensemble. In relying on late Chou for transforming the society, Mao's China, now emerging fast as the world's new super-power, recognized that any new social development has to remain in some way a functional part of the historical continuity, which if disrupted by the revolution would mean total undermining of the historical forces and the derailment of the society to a uncertain track.
In Bangladesh, the refinement of the major constituents of the social ensemble was repeatedly undone. The people in the society who had been patronized and raised in wealth and status by the Moguls, rightly or wrongly, and who later, through a process of refinement supported by better exposures and education, became embodiments of values, were replaced by the colonial British with their self-created new privileged class -- the Zaminders and Talukdars. These Zaminders and Talukdars also underwent a process of refinement. They established at the expense of their own wealth many of the old and renowned local academic institutions, schools and colleges, including the University of Dhaka. This group disappeared with the amendment of the land tenancy system with the rise of Pakistan. Then the Muslim Leaguers began to emerge with their raw connections to power as a new privileged class. Before they could become the embodiments of high values through a steady process of perfection and education, they virtually became non-entities because of their political adventurisms and mistakes; and a new privileged class began to emerge to fill up the new void in independent Bangladesh.
Unlike in Bangladesh, in India, which is another emergent Asian power with a stable educated class progressively contributing to the creation of their national wealth in higher quanta in varied ways, the upper class was never on a slippery path. In India, the majority are Hindus. The society in that country has remained organized through centuries by the undemocratic caste system. But it allows the society there to record steady improvement on the enduring continuity of the social order, based on the permanent superiority of the Brahmins in its social ensemble. About 80 per cent of its MPs and government leaders are still said to be from that caste.
The majority Muslims of this country, who are the cognizable force in a democratic order, are not afflicted by any caste system. They should look into how they can have persons in the society who would represent and be embodiments of positive virtues. Otherwise, they may perennially regret for having raw deals from up-starts in politics. We may recheck what Morgan has theorized for study in sociology.
The Nehrus in India - Moti Lal, Jahar Lal, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia largely, were and are parts of the historical continuity of an aristocracy, which had been raised by Emperor Farrukhshier, one of the last ruling Moguls. Pandit Jwahar Lal Nehru in his goodness mentioned in his autobiography about the role of the emperor in lifting his family from poverty to stardom. The same Nehru lifted India.
In India's West Bengal state, a Brahmin leads a communist government. Chief Minister Buddadev Bhattachariya still remains a Brahmin. But he is a man of the people. Sophistication attained through refinement of ideas from generation to generation and through education, changes men into better individuals. Modern genetics also supports it as it establishes that acquired values are also transmitted to succeeding generations as if to endorse Morgan's idea on steady development of societies.
We may think again how far we shall go with the current drive against the corrupt persons. Should it involve remaking the social ensemble or should it target only the major offenders?
THE factor that decides the ultimate dynamics of a country is its social ensemble. The nature of this ensemble is patterned and regulated by the historical circumstances. It cannot be fully changed overnight, as it is rooted in the events of irretrievable past. But it can be modified in a gradual process.
Massive pressure to change the character of the constituents of a social ensemble, as on any mechanical one, may destroy or distort the ensemble itself. That's why gradual motivation through a steady process of counseling and changes in the legal framework has been recognized in the communication science as an effective tool for modifying and changing the basic characters of a society. The same argument justifies the freedom of press.
The early major historical forces, like ancient kings, were basically thugs. They occupied lands and subjugated peoples not because they wanted to promote public weal. They were led primarily by their greed to augment their personal wealth. But in the process of consolidating their newly acquired possessions they adopted, altered and refined their policies, which markedly served public weal. It may be the story about the evolution and refinement of the social ensembles, now being called societies.
The British House of Lords is widely viewed in the Great Britain and elsewhere in the informed circles as the conscience keeper of the society in that country. Who are the members of that august body? The largest majority of them are landlords, the British version of the former landlords in this country, who were called zamindars. The British have retained their House of Lords for the last 800 years. It has allowed the successive generations of members of the House to upgrade their characters through a process of progressive education and steady inheritance of cultivated values and rich ideas, which Morgan recognize in sociology as the way of structural improvement of the social ensemble.
Some American analysts trace the family trees of contenders for their presidency. Bill Clinton, prior to his election to his nation's top job, was found by a few of them to have traces of distant family connections with both the British and the French royal families. It seems that they still look for the blue blood while selecting individuals for major public offices of trust, like the presidency.
In contrast, the dissolved Soviet Union always valued meritocracy and hierarchical positions within its communist party. A coalmine worker, as was Podgorny, was chosen late in the last century as its president. Late chairman Mao in China relied on aristocrat Chou En Lai, as his prime minister, to rebuild his communist country on the model of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He depended on a strong pillar of the old social ensemble to create a new ensemble. In relying on late Chou for transforming the society, Mao's China, now emerging fast as the world's new super-power, recognized that any new social development has to remain in some way a functional part of the historical continuity, which if disrupted by the revolution would mean total undermining of the historical forces and the derailment of the society to a uncertain track.
In Bangladesh, the refinement of the major constituents of the social ensemble was repeatedly undone. The people in the society who had been patronized and raised in wealth and status by the Moguls, rightly or wrongly, and who later, through a process of refinement supported by better exposures and education, became embodiments of values, were replaced by the colonial British with their self-created new privileged class -- the Zaminders and Talukdars. These Zaminders and Talukdars also underwent a process of refinement. They established at the expense of their own wealth many of the old and renowned local academic institutions, schools and colleges, including the University of Dhaka. This group disappeared with the amendment of the land tenancy system with the rise of Pakistan. Then the Muslim Leaguers began to emerge with their raw connections to power as a new privileged class. Before they could become the embodiments of high values through a steady process of perfection and education, they virtually became non-entities because of their political adventurisms and mistakes; and a new privileged class began to emerge to fill up the new void in independent Bangladesh.
Unlike in Bangladesh, in India, which is another emergent Asian power with a stable educated class progressively contributing to the creation of their national wealth in higher quanta in varied ways, the upper class was never on a slippery path. In India, the majority are Hindus. The society in that country has remained organized through centuries by the undemocratic caste system. But it allows the society there to record steady improvement on the enduring continuity of the social order, based on the permanent superiority of the Brahmins in its social ensemble. About 80 per cent of its MPs and government leaders are still said to be from that caste.
The majority Muslims of this country, who are the cognizable force in a democratic order, are not afflicted by any caste system. They should look into how they can have persons in the society who would represent and be embodiments of positive virtues. Otherwise, they may perennially regret for having raw deals from up-starts in politics. We may recheck what Morgan has theorized for study in sociology.
The Nehrus in India - Moti Lal, Jahar Lal, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia largely, were and are parts of the historical continuity of an aristocracy, which had been raised by Emperor Farrukhshier, one of the last ruling Moguls. Pandit Jwahar Lal Nehru in his goodness mentioned in his autobiography about the role of the emperor in lifting his family from poverty to stardom. The same Nehru lifted India.
In India's West Bengal state, a Brahmin leads a communist government. Chief Minister Buddadev Bhattachariya still remains a Brahmin. But he is a man of the people. Sophistication attained through refinement of ideas from generation to generation and through education, changes men into better individuals. Modern genetics also supports it as it establishes that acquired values are also transmitted to succeeding generations as if to endorse Morgan's idea on steady development of societies.
We may think again how far we shall go with the current drive against the corrupt persons. Should it involve remaking the social ensemble or should it target only the major offenders?